Congressman Salud Carbajal and local health care experts emphasized their concerns about the Republican health care plan to replace and repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at a standing-room-only town hall meeting Monday in Santa Barbara.

They discussed the potential impact on Santa Barbara County residents and the American health care system by repealing portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. It was Carbajal’s second town hall meeting since taking over as representative of the 24th Congressional District.

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Carbajal started off by talking about the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee’s 37-page report released Monday, which estimated that enacting the American Health Care Act would reduce federal deficits by $337billion over the next 10years and the number of uninsured people would rise by 24million by 2026, relative to current law.

The American Health Care Act was proposed by congressional Republicans.

Carbajal echoed the CBO report’s estimation that in 2018, 14million more people would be uninsured under the proposed legislation than under current law.

“My major concern with this legislation is that it allows for insurance companies to charge seniors up to five times more (than young people) for coverage,” Carbajal said. “It endangers Medicaid programs nationwide and does not guarantee access to health care for those individuals with pre-existing conditions.”

Carbajal said the proposed bill is a “direct attack” on women’s access to health care by freezing all Medicaid funding for family planning clinics.

“This proposal also includes a direct attack on the patients that rely on Planned Parenthood for care,” Tosh said. “The bill proposed to defund Planned Parenthood, meaning it would prevent anyone who has Medicaid or any federal program from turning to Planned Parenthood for their care. The federal dollars subsidize reimbursements for basic health care services.”

Planned Parenthood provides care for 35,000 people annually at five centers in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, Tosh said.